The equine diaphragm is a large muscle that stretches the length and width of the horse’s torso. Descending forward from thorax vertebra eighteen and attaching to the free ribs nine to eighteen, it hooks up to the sternum just behind the horse’s front legs. The diapraghm seperates reproductive and digestive organs from heart and lungs. It delineates forehand and hindquarters.
23. The diaphraghm
When the croup closes the equine abdominal tract moves forward and presses against the diapraghm (see postures). The diapraghm’s resulting reaction and the back's mounting provide room for the solar plexus, which indicates the horse’s lightness.
The solar plexus is a nerve bundle of the autonomous nervous system. This bundle in the human wraps around the Aorta in the area of the last thorax vertebra twelve and the first lumbar vertebra. It is located between stomack and spinal cord in the very same area, from which the rider’s central steering works.
In the horse the solar plexus is located in the hindquarters right under the uppermost section of the diapraghm between stomack and spine. It corresponds to thorax nerve sections sixteen to eighteen, which are located midway between thorax nerve section nine and the sacral joint; that part of the horse's back in other words, which mounts when the croup closes.
The diapraghm is the major breathing muscle. In the human it ascends like a dome from the ninth vertebra. This breath’s engine is innervated by the phrenic nerve, which in the human proceeds from the diapraghm to neck vertebrae five and six. In the horse it proceeds from the the diapraghm to neck vertebrae six and seven. The neck's position and adjustments of the diapraghm's activity thus correlate.
Diapraghm and solar plexus interact. Many years ago I discovered an astounding improvement of my self-confidence, which resulted from a simple lifting of the ribcage. Without any further inquiries I spontaniously attributed this improvement to diapraghm and solar plexus.
Only in May 2006 began the systematic experiment with movements and reflexes of my vertebra and their impact on shoulders, ribs and sacrum. The goal was, and continues to be, the detection of means, by which the rider might swiftly improve and/or change his posture, as equine positions and locomotion may call for. Informed by the horse's physiology and suspecting a correlation between human and equine structure I began this research with raising the second neck vertebra, while simultaniously moving back neck vertebrae seven and thorax vertebra one located at the shoulder blades' upper rim. Between them the before mentioned peripheral nerve C8 exits the spinal column. From them the dermatome C8 proceeds down the arms to the ringfingers and pinkies.
These two exercises resulted in a reorientation of my spinal column around thorax vertebrae ten to twelve. They caused the shoulders to descend and close. In some sort of automation they move elbows and hips towards each other. In the body’s lower part they caused a forward movement of the sacrum, accompanied by a leveling of the pelvis.
The horse tends to copy these adjustments in the human vertebra. They call on the raising of the second vertebra in the horse's upper neck and a lowering of the sacrum. A resulting improvement in the sacrum's innervation activates the haunches. Raising the second neck vertebra brings up the lower neck and - in coordination with the activation of the haunches - lifts the forehand. Resultingly the horse mobilizes and begins to work in second gear.
Interestingly enough all these adjustments, both in the rider and in the horse, center around the solar plexus. It remains to fully understand the nerve section C8.
